As is generally well known traditional wine racks stored bottles of wine in square or circular compartments, to maximize the number of bottles that could be stored against a wall. These compartments extended orthogonally from the wall such that wine bottles were inserted base first, with only the mouth and cork of the bottle visible from the outside. This was problematic to a person trying to select a wine bottle from such a rack, because the label which distinguishes one wine bottle from another is on the body of the bottle, not at the mouth and cork.
Another problem with traditional wine racks is that they were not modular. Typical wine racks were built in large units that covered entire walls. This led to much wasted space for users who did not have enough wine to fill the rack. Modular wooden racks using dowels to create a rack enable the same kind of storage with bottles orthogonal to a wall with only the corks readily visible. However, this assembly method allowed as much wine rack as was needed for the available space.
Subsequent art in the wine rack field disclosed racks made of wood, wire, or metal. Some were modular, but others were decorative, with a predetermined number of storage spaces. These racks offered several advantages. The racks were cheaper to produce, lightweight, portable, and easy to install. However, these racks persisted in storing the wine orthogonal to the viewer. These iterations of wine racks did not solve the key problem of making the label visible to a viewer while the bottle was still in the rack.
All of the prior art racks and storage systems, to the best knowledge of the inventor, failed to enable display of wine bottles in combination with their storage and further enable display and/or storage of wine glasses, decanters and the like wine paraphernalia. Therefore, there is a need for an improved modular system for storing and displaying wine bottles and similarly elongated articles, for example, oil bottles, shampoo and/or conditioner bottles and containers and even shoes.